Crystal Bowersox puts her boyfriend on the spot!

Crystal Bowersox, who got Shania to sign her guitar during the Chicago auditions, noticed that Shania "is constantly glowing." She enjoyed hanging out with Shania.

Crystal's picked No One Needs to Know, a No. 1 country hit from 1996, that she's singing as a message to her boyfriend. "He'll man up one of these days," she says.

She gets down to the song's acoustic essentials, with a Dobro player, a stand-up bassist, a mandolin player and a drummer playing a snare on stage with her. She sounds good, but the female harmony singer sounds tentative, which throws off the arrangement. All in all, it's a good concept that doesn't quite carry off, but that's more the fault of the band than it is of Crystal.

The judges don't see it that way. Randy likes the "whole Nickel Creek version," though it wasn't his favorite. "I'm happy somebody tonight is doing more of a country version of one of Shania's songs."

Ellen says her least favorite Crystal performance is like her least favorite color of the rainbow.

"It's kind of impossible for you not to be good," says Kara. "Was it your best? No. But you're still amazing."

"Bigger isn't always better," Crystal tells her.

"Shocker -- we don't like Crystal this week," Simon says, getting to the point when no one else will. "I didn't feel any conviction from you," and, with apologies to Shania, he thinks it was a forgettable song.

"Lack of conviction? I don't think so -- he's right there," Crystal replies, pointing to her boyfriend.

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

About Brian Mansfield

Nashville-based Brian Mansfield began writing about music for USA TODAY in 1997 and took over Idol Chatter just before the start of Season 8. He co-authored Make Me a Star: Industry Insiders Reveal How to Make It in Music, and while he has never auditioned for American Idol, he did sing Boot Scootin' Boogie at Disney World's American Idol Experience the day the attraction opened (he lost). More about Brian | E-mail Brian